With a goal scored by captain John Obi Mikel on Saturday, Nigeria’s Dream Team VI cruised into the semi-finals of the men’s football event of the Rio Olympics with a 2-0 win over Denmark.
The Dream Team, who had before now been enmeshed in wrangling over unpaid allowances, came out smoking against the Danes.
Imoh Ezekiel had scored the first goal, and goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel saved the team from the Danes’ onslaught.
The Nigeria U-23 team continued from where they stopped at the restart of the second half as they continued to push for another goal.
Their efforts finally paid off just before the hour mark when Mikel, with a well-delivered cross, found Aminu Usman who connected with a header which put Nigeria 2-0 up.
The Danes made a flurry of changes to attempt to turn the tables, but they were unable to breach the Nigerian defence even though many feel that department is the weakest link in Coach Samson Siasia’s team.
With the win, Nigeria will be up against Germany in the semi-final.
